The color of leaves
by Konpeitou
Summary: Naruto does actually have interests beyond shinobi training, one that is very important to him in fact. When a precious person acknowledges this hobby and reciprocates gifts, Naruto finds that these important things become even more so. For GaaNaru fanday


konpeitou: This is a companion drabble to "The color of sand", written for the GaaNaru fanday '08. Hope you enjoy.

* * *

Contrary to popular belief, Naruto did have hobbies outside of eating ramen and training. Naruto's favorite hobby was, in fact, gardening.

It was an interest that developed when he was little, when he had been too young to understand why people were so mean, so cold, to him. When it seemed like no matter what he did, people were always giving him guarded looks and whispering behind his back, always leaving him alone. He'd come to the conclusion that plants were nicer than people; plants didn't treat you badly for no apparent reason. Plants just didn't treat you badly at all. Rather, plants were something that needed him. They needed watering and trimming and care to grow and flourish. They thrived with his attention, rather than shrinking from it like all the people did.

If it hadn't been for Iruka's kindly mentorship, Naruto might have decided that he didn't really like people after all. Who needed mean people when the plants actually appreciated him? But Iruka cared about him and gave him hope and Naruto was nothing if not stubborn, so he adamantly kept trying to win the acceptance of the people around him. Until then, though, he took care of his plants.

When he'd been made a Genin and accepted into Kakashi's team, Naruto had finally begun to feel the fruits of his labor. He finally felt acknowledged. Naruto had then given one of his plants to his teacher. He had downplayed the whole thing, not wanting to make a big deal out of it, but the truth was that it was an important thing to him to give away one of his plants. He cared about and loved those plants, that had held steadfast with him through the years and helped him to get where he was. That was why it was important to give it to Kakashi, to the man that acknowledged him. It wasn't like Sasuke would ever accept one anyway, and he respected Kakashi more…

The first time he'd gone on a mission that lasted more than a few days, Naruto had asked Iruka to take care of his plants for him. It had been a sign of trust, for him, to let someone else take care of his plants. He felt absurdly silly while he was gone for worrying about them. He'd told himself that they were only plants and he could always grow more, but the simple fact of the matter was that he had nurtured them and cared for and about them; it was probably about what he imagined the affection for a pet to be like, just with less maintenance. When he'd returned, he'd been more relieved that he'd liked to admit to see that the plants had been well cared for and not suffering at all for his absence. Naruto never doubted Iruka again.

It became routine for Iruka to take care of his plants if he was ever gone for an extended period of time, longer than the plants could survive without at least simple watering. When he'd gone out on the two-year training trip with Jiraiya, Iruka had visited him in the hospital to hug and assure him that he would take care of the plants the same as any other trip Naruto went on. It had made him feel happy, and loved.

That training trip was a very important part of his life. He learned a lot and trained hard, but being out and about with a perverted old man left a few things to be desired – namely his friends. The more he traveled, the more he missed them. He found himself seeing things that reminded him of the people he left behind. He once saw a really pretty cherry blossom hair comb that made him think of Sakura. It would have been lovely to hold up her hair when she was dressed in a festival yukata… alas, Jiraiya had spent a chunk of Naruto's money and he hadn't been able to buy it for her. He had rather feared she'd take it the wrong way, anyway; girls were weird and unpredictable like that. Later, he'd gotten her a similar set of hair accessories. It was a pretty set of enameled pins and a queue stick with beads and cherry blossom ornaments hanging from it. The pins he figured she could use, and the queue.. well, maybe if she ever grew her hair out again. Who knew. But they reminded him of her so he'd bought them. Here and there he'd seen other little things to remind him of the others and would occasionally buy them up and stuff them in his pack for later, when he'd send a large care package back home.

The strangest gift Naruto had gotten though was, by far, the little jar of sand that he'd gotten for Gaara. He wasn't entirely sure why it made him think of the foreigner he'd fought, let alone why he'd even consider that guy for giving a gift to, but he was homesick and lonely and a little nostalgic. For whatever reason, the sand had made him think of Gaara. Whatever their differences had been, they had been similar. They shared a similar fate. Remembering the looks and the confusion and the eyes… Naruto thought that maybe Gaara needed to know what it was like to have a friend. Gaara would perhaps like to know that someone thought of him; Naruto knew that he would, if it were him.

So he'd sent off the little jar of sand with a note and moved on to the next place Jiraiya took him to train. The next time he came across sand that looked special somehow, he did the same thing. Naruto had had no idea if his gifts were being welcomed, as removed as he was from consistent contact. So he continued to buy up little gifts here and there and proceeded with his training one day at a time until he was allowed to go home again.

One day, though, a little over a year into his trip, Jiraiya came and rapped him on the head with a scroll by way of a morning greeting. He'd then proceeded to explain that Tsunade was getting irritated with having to deal with all his mail. At first Naruto was worried that the package of small gifts he'd sent back, asking her to distribute for him, was angering her. Then he was told that while that was a very minor part of it, it was more the fact that she had a small pile of packages from Sunagakure that was getting on her nerves.

To sum her message up, she wanted him to have Gaara stop sending packages for her to deal with until he got back!

Needless to say, Naruto made sure to say something to that effect the next time he sent sand to Gaara, along with cheerful thanks for the return gifts. Naruto had felt absurdly happy to know that his gifts had been well-received, and even more so that Gaara would go so far as to reciprocate. He'd felt giddy and impatient to go home for at least a week. He had presents waiting!

When he'd finally come home at the end of it and finished with all his debriefing, Tsunade had had the pile of parcels dropped off at his doorstep. Like a kid on Christmas, Naruto had settled down and started opening them up by date. The first letter was short and concise and no little bit awkward, even in writing. Gaara thanked him for the gift, weakly returned the pleasantries, then made a short statement about the gift he'd sent. Naruto had been at first confused, then touched, to find a small package containing a few seeds. He didn't know how, and he never really wanted to ask, but somehow Gaara had known that Naruto liked gardening. He'd sent the seeds for a rare and exotic desert plant that, admittedly, he'd asked Temari to help him find.

The rest of the messages were much the same and, as Naruto's letters had become less reserved and more open, so had Gaara's in return. As Naruto had always send him sand, Gaara always sent him the seeds for some new plant. Most were exotic and rare, which made them unfortunately difficult to care for. When he made a comment to that effect in a letter afterward, Gaara surprised him by sending him a cactus with a teasing challenge, daring him to kill that one. Naruto took very good care of all of his plants, even getting some new shelves to hold them all, and refused to let even the delicate ones suffer. Iruka had been bemused the first time he'd been given instructions for the new additions.

The only time Naruto had ever asked someone other than Iruka to care for his plants while he was away on a mission had been his most recent trip. It wasn't that he didn't want Iruka to do it, or that Iruka hadn't been able, it had just been a matter of circumstance. Naruto had gone, as usual, to find Iruka before he left for the mission and found him at the Academy. In the middle of his usual request, Konohamaru had come into the classroom and eagerly asked what the favor was. When Naruto explained, Konohamaru had jumped at the chance and eagerly offered to look over the plants himself. He would do anything for Naruto-niichan!

Now, it wasn't that Naruto didn't trust Konohamaru. Well, not just that, at any rate. The kid was impulsive and had an even shorter attention span than Naruto himself. If Naruto had to choose someone other than Iruka, it would have been Sakura, but she was always on the same missions with him. So was Sai, and Naruto frankly wouldn't trust even the cactus to that guy. Suffice to say there were several people above Konohamaru on the list. Still, he had been so eager and he _had_ grown up a little, so Naruto agreed. He gave over the keys, a set of detailed instructions, and even left a second set in his apartment for good measure. It was only a fortnight, what's the worst that could happen?

Naruto learned on his return that, barring Sai, Konohamaru probably _was_ the worst thing that could happen to his plants.

Suffice to say, Konohamaru was banned forever from their caretaking and Naruto found himself now spending his free time nursing them back to health. To be fair, not all of them were suffering. The common plants did well enough with the daily watering the cactus was as stout as ever, but the rare breeds that he'd been given by Gaara were lackluster. The worst casualty was the one that had been Gaara's very first gift, a plant that was so rare because it was so very delicate outside of its natural habitat. Being from the desert it required very little water and only once every few days – as the note sitting right next to the pot clearly said – which should have made it harder to kill, not easier. Now the poor thing was drowned nearly to death and Naruto was frantically trying to resuscitate it.

It wasn't just that it was one of his plants and he cared about them. He knew that at the end of the day, they were still just plants. It wasn't the little details that made him crazed over the abused flora. It was the simple fact that it had come from _Gaara_. This plant had been Gaara's first gift to him, the first gift from someone he now counted among his precious people. Naruto couldn't bear to lose it.

To Naruto, his plants were precious. Plants from his precious people, even more so.

* * *

konpeitou: Please review and tell me what you think, if you'd be so kind. I hope you enjoyed it and thank you for your time :D


End file.
